HYLS vs SPHY

HYLSCFirst Trust Tactical High Yield ETF

SPHYAState Street SPDR Portfolio High Yield Bond ETF

In short

HYLS Most high yield ETFs buy the index and sit still. HYLS has been actively managed since 2013 and runs long and short bond positions at once, aiming at income first, appreciation second. That tactical wiring costs 0.69%, no fee waiver.

SPHY State Street's junk-bond workhorse: roughly 1,900 US high yield bonds in one wrapper for 0.05% a year, a fraction of what the typical high yield ETF charges, with income paid monthly.

Stated mandate

HYLS The Fund seeks current income and secondarily capital appreciation through active management. It normally invests at least 80% of net assets in below-investment-grade or comparably rated high-yield debt securities.

SPHY The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the ICE BofA US High Yield Index.

Why people hold it

• HYLS The short book is the whole point: under normal conditions HYLS holds long and short bond positions at once, a lever the index trackers in this category do not have.sec.gov
• Income is the stated first job, appreciation second, with at least 80% of net assets in below-investment-grade debt and cash paid out monthly.
• Trading since 2013 and now a multi-billion-dollar portfolio of roughly 400 bonds, it is a seasoned operation rather than a recent launch.
• The portfolio matches the mandate on paper closely: a high yield book run the way the prospectus describes, with moderate day-to-day trading volume.

• SPHY 0.05% a year against a peer-group median about eight times higher. In high yield, the fee comes straight out of coupon income, so the gap does real work.
• Holds about 1,900 bonds tracking the ICE BofA US High Yield Index, broad enough that no single issuer's trouble dominates the portfolio.ssga.com
• Live since 2012, a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively and has stuck tightly to its stated index rather than drifting from the mandate.
• Distributions arrive monthly, in step with how the underlying coupons come in.

Worth knowing

• HYLS At 0.69% with no fee waiver it sits above the category median, while index rivals like SCYB (0.03%) and USHY (0.08%) cost a sliver of that. Active management is what you pay for.
• Shorting and active positioning mean returns can diverge from the index in either direction, and below-investment-grade debt carries default risk.sec.gov
• The monthly payout is a policy, not a coupon: the amount floats with the portfolio's income and the manager's positioning.

• SPHY This is below-investment-grade credit. Defaults and spread moves drive the price far more than Treasury yields do, and sell-offs in this asset class can be sharp.
• Fees here are already near the floor: SCYB lists 0.03% and HYLB matches at 0.05%, so the cost edge over the strongest peers is narrow.
• Scope is US high yield corporates, full stop. No investment-grade ballast, no emerging market debt, nothing to soften a credit drawdown from inside the fund.ssga.com

Full HYLS profile⁠

Full SPHY profile⁠